Snails are disappearing???

[Tooch81]

So i'm a little confused here. My tank has been running just fine for about 5 weeks now and all of a sudden snails are disappearing and so is one of my corrals??

Any help/advice/comments/info? I'm completely scratching my head because nothing had changed in 5+ weeks?

30G biocube
40lbs live sand
15lbs live rock

Levels
pH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm
Phosphate - 0ppm
Calcium - 420ppm
Hardness - 179 ppm KH

Fish
2 black and white ocellaris clowns
1 blue velvet damsel

Inverts/Snails
1 emerald crab
1 blood red shrimp
1 scarlet skunk shrimp
2 scarlet reef crabs
2 electric blue hermit crabs
2 bumble bee snails
7 snails (don't remember the kind and 3 are now missing so there are only 4 left)

Coral
1 2" round green star polyp
4 various zooanthid polyps in various sizes (the eagle eye is now gone?? Just flat out gone, off the rock and not in the tank?)

 

[daves-reef]

Depending on the size, hermit craps are notorious snail killers. Do any of your crabs have a larger house?

 

[Tooch81]

There are 4 empty shells in the tank. all four living snails i would consider to be "small" and i have 3 medium shells and 1 large empty in the tank? Maybe the size difference is too much? Should i have more "small" so they can switch between shells when they want?

 

[STiTCH87]

+1 on hermits killing snails. Also, eunice/bobbit worms kill snails and hermits like crazy. Been there done that, though they're not too too common.

But yes I see hermits rip snails out of their shell, eat the snail and take the shell (often times they don't even take the shell) just because.
Thus why I do not have any hermit crabs in any of my tanks, lol. Or snails. Or shrimp. Actually, I don't have any CUC... Lol.

 

[jdeb101]

+1 on hermits killing snails. Also, eunice/bobbit worms kill snails and hermits like crazy. Been there done that, though they're not too too common.

But yes I see hermits rip snails out of their shell, eat the snail and take the shell (often times they don't even take the shell) just because.
Thus why I do not have any hermit crabs in any of my tanks, lol. Or snails. Or shrimp. Actually, I don't have any CUC... Lol.

Very interesting... What do you do in place?

 

[STiTCH87]

Very interesting... What do you do in place?

TBH, just keep my nutrients super low, weekly 25% waterchanges, and manually clean the glass every other day. I lied about no CUC, forgot about my tiger tail cucumber. He keeps the sand pretty clean.

I also don't run any carbon, GFO, ATS, or skimmers. Super low tech tank. Believe me, it's 100% luck, because my 10g needs me to hold it's hand through everything and even then fails, lol.

 

[Tooch81]

Thanks for the advice but now i'm really starting to get worried. I came home from work today and my emerald crab is dead?? Would the hermit attack them too? Also, one of my zoa's hasn't opened in about a week and when i cleaned it off with a blast of water a little black puss came out of it? WTF is going on??

 

[daves-reef]

Are you sure that the emerald crab was dead or just maybe a molt? A molt would just be an empty shell. If it was a dead crab it would be somewhat solid and not just an empty shell. Same for p shrimp molts. But they come out when I feed.

 

[Tooch81]

You are right. The crab molted but i couldn't find him last night even when i fed him. He did show up this AM, but i'm still nervous about the Zoa?